1. Field
The invention is in the field of exercise machines that provide two directions of resistance to movement of a user.
2. State of the Art
There are numerous exercise machines that provide handles to a user that are moved by the user in opposite, back and forth directions and which provide resistance to movement that the user overcomes in moving the handles to thus exercise parts of the user's body. Many of these devices provide for adjustment of the resistance to movement offered by the handles. In this way, a user can adjust the amount of resistance to adjust the exercise provided by moving the handles. Some of these exercise devices provide the resistance to movement in both directions of movement while other such devices provide resistance in only one or the other of the directions of movement. U.S. Pat. No. 6,736,766 provides an exercise apparatus wherein the user can not only adjust the amount of resistance to movement, but can also adjust whether the resistance is applied in only one or the other direction of movement or in both directions of movement. However, when adjusted to provide resistance in both directions of movement, the adjusted resistance is the same in both directions.
It is seldom that a user of exercise equipment will be able to move a handle in each of opposite directions with equal strength. For example, if a user is performing a shoulder press to lift handles upwardly against a resistance, and then is performing a lat pull to pull the handles downwardly against a resistance, the user will normally be able to pull downwardly with greater strength than the user can push upwardly. Thus, to exercise effectively, the user will want more resistance to downward pull than to upward push. With current exercise equipment, a user will generally perform shoulder presses separately from performing lat pulls. The equipment used for shoulder presses will generally provide resistance to upward movement of the handles and provide no resistance to the downward return movement after the shoulder press is completed. The user thus performs a repetition of shoulder presses. The user would then either move to a separate piece of equipment to perform lat pulls or have to adjust the equipment used for shoulder presses to change the mode of operation to perform lat pulls. The equipment would then allow unresisted upward movement of the handles and would be adjusted to provide the desired resistance to the downward lat pull. The user would then perform a repetition of lat pulls. Some current machines can provide resistance in both directions of handle travel, however, the resistance provided in each of the opposite directions is equal. Thus, the user would adjust the resistance to the desired resistance for performing the shoulder presses and this would then also be the resistance provided by the machine for lat pulls. However, since the user generally would need increased resistance for the lat pulls to adequately exercise the muscles involved, the resistance provided for the lat pulls would not provide the degree of exercise generally desired by the user.
It would be desirable to have an exercise machine that would provide a different desired resistance in each direction of handle movement, thus allowing the shoulder presses to be performed with the upward arm movement at one resistance setting and the lat pulls to be performed with the downward arm movement at a second resistance setting. The same need for different resistance settings for different directions of handle movement is present with most exercises. For further example, different resistances for different directions of handle movement would be desirable for machines on which a user can perform both chest presses and horizontal rowing, both biceps curls and triceps presses, both abdominal flexion and back extensions, leg extensions and leg curls, and total leg presses.